Sol grew up in Brooklyn NY. He attended Abraham Lincoln HS where he met his wife to be, Lennie Kalish. He attended Brooklyn College, playing and teaching guitar in order to pay the tuition. An economics major, Sol maintained a lifelong interest in progressive politics, community activism, and history. He had planned to continue for a graduate degree but was drafted during the Korean war. With Lennie, Sol served part of the war in France and Germany.
After returning to the US, Sol worked for Pyrotronics. Sol earned a Masters from Rutgers after performing his thesis work at Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ. He then taught electronics for 25 years at Union County Technical Institute (now Union County College). He became a full professor and served as department chair for several years but was more interested in technology and education than administration. During that time he began writing the book Repairing Transistor Radios, the first book on the subject. Sol went on to write 15 more books on topics from TV repair to digital logic and microcomputer hardware.
While at UCC, Sol became interested in digital electronics and began experimenting with early consumer computers. Low expectations and great patience was required for computer ownership at that time. At 43, he built his first computer using an Intel 8008 CPU with 1024 bytes of memory. Determined to share his interest, he founded the Amateur Computer Group of NJ where he served as president for 6 years. When Sol retired, ACGNJ had 1600 members and published a monthly 24-page newsletter. With friend Al Katz, Sol co-founded the Trenton Computer Festival, the oldest and longest-running personal computer show. Both ACGNJ and TCF continue to this day.
Sol was a member of the professional association Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and served on their standards bodies related to interfacing issues including the S100 bus and went on to write a book about it. Sol served as a consultant on microcomputer design for several companies. He was a guest lecturer at many schools, conferences, and associations where he presented hundreds of talks on various aspects of computing. He wrote many magazine articles and for 16 years authored a monthly column in Byte, a popular magazine devoted to microcomputers. Sol and Lennie created their own magazine, Microsystems, and later another, Micro/Systems Journal. At their peak, the two magazines had a circulation of 60,000.
Sol loved learning new things and educating others. He received many honors for his dedication and leadership in personal computing, and many related awards including Hobbyist of the Year in 1976 and again, a decade later. After retirement, Sol and Lennie moved to Virginia, spent time in South Carolina, eventually settling in Princeton, New Jersey where Sol taught computer classes to seniors at the Computer Learning Center at Ewing.
Throughout his life, Sol enjoyed many hobbies including hiking, music, cycling, and sailing, going so far as to build his own sailboat. He was a craftsman who delighted in building and fixing things. A devoted husband and father, he enjoyed visiting and vacationing with his family and friends. Sol is survived by his loving wife of 66 years, Lennie, daughter, Susan (Prashant Sansgiry and 4 grandcats), son, Don, and granddaughter, Kenna.
Robert David Hawes
October 18, 1948 ~ December 4, 2016 (age 68)
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Obituary
Robert David Hawes (Bob) was a long time member of ACGNJ. His most recent activity was the editing of the ACGNJ News for several years. Bob put a lot of time and effort into keeping the newsetter alive and active, along with his other editing work for Bayonne Train Club and the Studebaker Drivers Club. Bob did a lot of editing and proofreading of earlier newsletter editions for Barbara DeGroot. He took over from Barbara in 2012 and has nursed it along editing and compiling news from our and many other clubs he felt worthwhile. Bob passed away early on Sunday morning, December 4, 2016, due to kidney and heart failure.
Ernest Clarence Davidson
March 2015
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Obituary
Ernest attended many of the ACGNJ meetings and passed the Microsoft Certified System Engineer courses held at the ACGNJ. A former welder, Ernest would sit in the park and do the Microsoft Exams outside. Expert guitar player, photographer, gardener his Atlanta drawl will be missed. Ernest was a major contributor to the SIG meetings and helped many people like Harry Broderick, David Lampe and Scott Vincent pass the exams. "You have to appreciate a good consulting job." "Be honest, be fair. Show up on time, don't cheat on timesheet." Always doing help desk support for banks and pharmaceutical companies he would say a deadline is the line where you are absolutely dead. They fire your butt and if you miss the deadline, your next job could be as the black jockey on the front yard of a house in Atlanta GA. 30 years with his common law wife condolences and good wishes to Ms Doreen Shoba
